Azekiel landed on top of a distant building from where he had a much better view of the center of the city.
On top of the building, he saw a massive crowd escaping through the route that he had opened up. Most of the people that managed to escape ran straight to their homes to hide, while a few even went as far as to leave the city.
Over a thousand people had already managed to escape before the other Kings came there to block the path and seal the escape route. The men were surprised to find a body lying right there, which belonged to the King who was supposed to stop the people here.
"No wonder people were able to escape. The one who was supposed to stop them is already dead. I must be honest; I didn't expect these people to be able to kill him. Did we really underestimate them?" One of the kings asked as he started killing people as well, once again making them run back.
The path which was opened up for escape momentarily was sealed up once again sealed. Two Kings maintained the blockage here while one chased after the people who had managed to Escape.
"I still can't believe that they could kill him. He wasn't the strongest out of all of us, but he surely wasn't the weakest either. You think a King killed him?" Another King asked as he pulled out his knife from the neck of a dead person.
There was a rule that no King was allowed to kill another King, but that didn't mean no one wanted to. It was quite possible that one of them used this commotion to take advantage and killed him.
"Who knows? I doubt it's as you say though. No one would be stupid enough to do that since there will definitely be people who saw it happen. When that witness comes out, and it turns out that the person was one of us, I'm sure that person is going to be in deep trouble. None of us would be this stupid."
"The commotion is useful, but it's also a double edged sword since, in this commotion, it's also impossible to kill all witnesses. It must be someone else. Don't worry though. We will soon find out."
****
With time, the number kept dwindling, and eventually, only a thousand people were left. Within minutes, even the thousand were killed, leaving the entire field littered with blood and limbs.
The old man stood in the field of blood, looking at the sight around him. They had all gained experience here and more or less achieved their objectives, but the old man still didn't look happy.
He looked at Jake's dead body right before him. It was supposed to be a simple mission where everyone was going to gain the final bit of experience that they needed to clear this floor.
Unfortunately, while they gained some experience and increased their strength, they also lost one of the kings, which made this entire thing a waste. Their overall stern was once again down.
The old man glared at the body, not speaking anything. This was becoming a headache for him to manage. They were so close to clearing this floor, and now…
"Who did it?" he asked. Even though his voice seemed perfectly calm, there was great rage hidden inside his eyes.
He knew that whoever did it, that person had single handedly pushed their final objective back by a lot! They were almost on the last step, and now they were two steps back because of this!
"We are not sure. Roy is still trying to find the witnesses. So far, the people we have found, none of them saw that person."
"There he comes!" the man pointed back, noticing a King dragging a person to them. The person still appeared alive though.
Roy reached the old man and tossed that person at his feet. "The last person that escaped... And he was also there when Jake was killed!"
The young man was tossed straight into the puddle of blood. His face looked horrified at the sight of his hands covered in blood as if he had seen a ghost.
The old man placed his fingers under the chin of the man, raising his head. "That puddle looks scary?"
"Don't worry. Your blood will also be a part of it if you don't answer us."
"I-i will tell everything! Please don't kill me!"
"That's much better." The old nodded, although still not happy.
After getting confirmation, the old man stepped back. "So tell me. Who killed him? What did you see?"
"I-it was a person. From his voice, he seemed like a man. That man killed him after a fight!"
"What did that man look like? Is he here?" The old man asked, making the young man observe all the Kings who were here to see if it was one of them who had betrayed them by breaking a rule.
"I-i don't know. I only saw him from behind. He was wearing a cloak, so I don't know what he looked like. But I do remember one thing!" The young man exclaimed.
He pointed at Jake. "H-he appeared to know that person the way he was talking to the killer! Also, that person was as strong as him. Moreover, he also had some metallic Gauntlets that could change shape..."
"Gauntlets that can change shape?" The old man frowned. That seemed like a weapon of sin since only a Weapon of Sin could have such a strange quality. Ordinary weapons couldn't transform.
This was more or less a confirmation that a King killed him, but who? None of them used Gauntlets as Weapons of Sin! That meant it certainly wasn't one of them who had killed Jake.
"Gauntlets?" Osiris was also surprised. He remembered a person who used Gauntlets, but there was no way for that person to get there.
Even the old man knew about Azekiel, who could use Gauntlets, but even he was sure that Azekiel couldn't appear here.
"It can't be him." The old man repeated. "If he managed to reach here and kill Jake, there is no way his name isn't going to be in the Tower."
He turned around to look at the tower as if to prove his point to himself.
As soon as he looked at the tower, his jaws dropped. Even Osiris looked back, only to be stunned. It was there! The name was actually there! He couldn't believe the name was on the tower and they hadn't noticed before.
Moreover, but only was Azekiel's name on the tower; it was already in the top 40!
Azekiel was ranked thirty-fifth in the Tower, which stunned everyone. How could it be possible that within a few weeks, Azekiel came from the eleventh Floor to here.
After they lost him, they thought he had died, but that clearly wasn't the case. However, how was this possible? They had never seen something like this. Even if it was him, how could that person grow so much in such a short time?
He was able to kill Jake? If his progress was that fast, just how long before he was going to be on the same level as them?
"The kid known as the Kingslayer in the initial Floors amongst his people. It seems he still hasn't changed his ways. He's still killing the Kings, and this time the ones that should've been beyond his capacity," the old man commented.
The other Kings also agreed. "Jake shouldn't be the only King he killed. We have placed Kings on each floor to prevent people from coming here. If he still came here, that meant he also killed the King that was guarding the portal which was guarding the portal. We can't take this lightly at all."
"That kid... He is really chewing more than he should. He weakened our team and made the trial even more challenging for us." The old man kept staring at the name on the tower.
"Should we find him and kill him?" A king in the top ten asked. "If he wants to play around, I would love to accompany him."
"No!" The old man shook his head. "We can't kill him."
"Why not?"
"We have lost Jake already. Our team is weak. We can't defeat the Floor Guarding. It'll take a really long time to reach that stage again. We will have to find another person to take Jake's place and have him level up to be on Jake's level, which is very time consuming."
"It's better that we ask the kid to work with us. He killed Jake, so he is definitely stronger. With him, we should once again be above the threshold to kill the Floor Guardian."
"You mean we will work with the one who killed one of us?"
"Or we can wait a decade more? Which one do you prefer?" The old man scoffed. "He wasn't a part of us, so he definitely didn't know the rules. Moreover, he is a kid. If we can get him to work with us, we can get to a higher world! Think about it!"
